Cultural, Economic, and Evolutionary Perspectives on Global Challenges: Prospects and Perils of Radical Interdisciplinarity

PhD Research Course, CSMN, University of Oslo

Course Description

Can new interdisciplinary work at the intersection of evolutionary biology, the social sciences, and the humanities help to understand and manage global challenges? This PhD-level course aims to use an evolutionarily-informed and interdisciplinary lens to take a critical look at contemporary global challenges, or ”crises”—climate change, the economic and poverty crises, public health, as well as various forms of cultural-political upheavals. The central aim will be to discover ways in which the combined insights from various disciplines, including evolutionary biology, cultural history, philosophy, political science, systems theory, and economics, can provide a better understanding of why such crises emerge and how they can be managed.

Questions to be addressed will include the following: How can we explain the emergence of human society? Can individual self-interest be reconciled with collective interests, and work for the public good? How is large-scale cooperation possible? What makes human social groups function well?  What factors lead to breakdowns in cooperation? How can principles of well-functioning groups be used to understand and remedy failures of cooperation? What role should the sciences and humanities play in shaping public policy?

*To register for the course, please visit the course website and follow the instructions for how to apply.